{{Short description|American journalist and musician}} {{For|the actor featured in [[Bonanza]] and [[Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]|Lorne Greene}} {{Infobox person | name = Lauren Green | image = | caption = Green during an ''Fox News Live'' headline update | birth_name= Lauren Susan Green<ref name="birth date"/> | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1958|6|30}}<ref name="birth date"/> | birth_place = [[Minneapolis]], [[Minnesota]], U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | education = [[University of Minnesota]]<br />[[Northwestern University]] | occupation = Correspondent<br />(Fox News) | height = 5 ft 10 in | spouse = Ted Nikolis | website = }} '''Lauren Susan Green''' (born June 30, 1958) is the Chief Religion Correspondent for [[Fox News]].<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.foxnews.com/contributor/lauren-green/index.html | work=Fox News | title=Opinion - Commentary from Lauren Green | date=April 22, 2011}}</ref><ref name=Foxbio>[http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/personalities/lauren-green/bio/#s=e-g Lauren Green bio], Fox News Network, accessed November 8, 2013.</ref> Previously she was a headline anchor giving weekday updates at the top and bottom of the hour during [[Breakfast television|morning television show]] ''[[Fox & Friends]]''. She has also appeared as a guest panelist on Fox's late-night satire show ''[[Red Eye (talk show)|Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld]]''. She is the first African-American Miss Minnesota.
==Early life== Green was born to Robert and Bessie Grissam Green in [[Minneapolis]]. She has two sisters, Barbara and Lois, and two brothers, Leslie and Kenneth.<ref name="birth date">{{cite news|url=http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=8742&enc=1|title=Minnesota Birth Index, 1935-2002|publisher=Ancestry.com|access-date=November 27, 2010}}</ref> In an interview with Bill O'Reilly she admitted that when she was in the sixth grade, [[Prince (musician)|Prince]] had a crush on her, called her to say "I like you", and she hung up on him.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/index.html#/v/4178198066001 |title=O'Reilly - FOXNews.com |website=[[Fox News]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100430090846/http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/index.html |archive-date=2010-04-30}}</ref> She later appeared in the music video for Prince's 1992 song [[My Name Is Prince]], playing a news anchor and using her own name of Lauren Green. She won the [[Miss Minnesota]] pageant in 1984, and was third runner-up in the [[Miss America 1985]] pageant.
Green earned her [[Bachelor of Music]] in piano performance from the [[University of Minnesota]] in 1980, then attended graduate school at the [[Medill School of Journalism]] at [[Northwestern University]].<ref name=Foxbio /><ref name=KingsCollegeInterview>{{YouTube|9cGQ1mRcLXw|Distinguished Visitor Series: Lauren Green}}, The King's College (New York), October 27, 2009, accessed July 28, 2013.</ref>
Green is a practicing Christian and was raised in the [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]].<ref name=Murphy/>
==Interview with Reza Aslan== In 2011, Green asked whether Islam "makes believers more susceptible to radicalization."<ref name=Murphy>{{cite news|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2013/0728/Can-Muslims-write-about-Christianity |title=Can Muslims write about Christianity? |last=Murphy |first=Dan |newspaper=The Christian Science Monitor |date=July 28, 2013 |access-date=April 4, 2016}}</ref>
Ιn a 2013 interview with Iranian-American scholar [[Reza Aslan]] about his new book, ''[[Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth]]'', Green questioned the Muslim scholar for the reasons of his research on Jesus and Christianity, in general, asking "why a Muslim would write about Jesus." Aslan defended his credentials several times throughout, and stated that his motive and interest were explicitly scholarly since religion is indeed his field of research. Green continued to press him on the same matter, appearing not to accept Aslan's explanations. Aslan stated that "anyone who thinks this book is an attack on Christianity has not read it yet."<ref name=Murphy/>
Green received considerable criticism for her line of questioning. [[Erik Wemple]] of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' disparaged Green's questions as "dumb, loaded, and prejudicial," calling for the Fox News Channel to apologize to Aslan.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2013/07/29/fox-news-must-apologize-to-reza-aslan/ |title=Fox News must apologize to Reza Aslan |last=Wemple |first=Erik |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=July 29, 2013 |access-date=April 4, 2016}}</ref> Daniel Politi of ''[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]'' speculated that the interview was possibly "the single most cringe-worthy, embarrassing interview on Fox News [...] in recent memory."<ref name=slate>{{cite news|title=Fox News to Scholar: Why Would a Muslim Write a Book About Jesus?|last=Politi |first=Daniel |url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/07/28/video_fox_news_lauren_green_asks_reza_aslan_why_muslim_would_be_interested.html|newspaper=Slate|date=July 28, 2013|access-date=July 28, 2013}}</ref> In a ''[[The Guardian|Guardian]]'' [[op-ed]], [[Roy Greenslade]] posed the rhetorical question, if "even by Fox News's standards, is this its most embarrassing interview?"<ref name=standards>{{cite news |last=Greenslade|first=Roy |author-link=|date=29 July 2013 |title=Even by Fox News's standards, is this its most embarrassing interview?|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2013/jul/29/fox-news-islam|work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=3 October 2024}}</ref> Meredith Blake, in the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', wrote that, in the "cringe-inducing interview," Green seemed to object to Aslan's background more than the actual contents of the book.<ref name=lat>{{cite news |last=Blake|first=Meredith |date=29 July 2013 |title=Fox News interview with religion scholar Reza Aslan goes viral|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-fox-news-reza-aslan-interview-lauren-green-jesus-20130729-story.html|work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=3 October 2024}}</ref>
Fox News' Dan Gainor defended Green, writing in an [[op-ed]] that in "the liberal media, one dare not ever question the motives of Muslims."<ref name=foxresponse>{{cite news |last=Gainor|first=Dan |date=30 July 2013 |title=Liberal media miss reality in jabs at Lauren Green's interview with 'Zealot' author Aslan|url=https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/liberal-media-miss-reality-in-jabs-at-lauren-greens-interview-with-zealot-author-aslan|work=[[Fox News]] |access-date=3 October 2024}}</ref>
Τhe book, buoyed by the [[Viral phenomenon|viral]] interview, went on to become a [[The New York Times Best Seller list|''New York Times'' best seller]].<ref name=best>{{cite news |last=Stump|first=Scott |date=31 July 2013 |title=Jesus book hits No. 1 in wake of viral Fox News interview|url=https://www.today.com/popculture/jesus-book-hits-no-1-wake-viral-fox-news-interview-6C10805955l|work=[[Today (American TV program)|Today]] |access-date=3 October 2024}}</ref>
==Music== In 2004, Green released an album called ''Classic Beauty'' consisting of [[classical music|classical]] piano music.<ref>{{cite news|author=David Freedlander |url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/30/lauren-green-the-woman-behind-fox-news-reza-aslan-interview-debacle.html |title=Lauren Green, the Woman Behind Fox News' Reza Aslan Interview Debacle |website=The Daily Beast |date=2013-07-30 |access-date=2013-08-04}}</ref>
Green also played keyboards for [[Mike Huckabee]]'s band called The Little Rockers on the [[Fox News]] program ''[[Huckabee]]''.
In January 2014 Green performed in the 90th birthday concert for [[Georg Ratzinger]], the brother of [[Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI]], who was also in attendance. She described this in an opinion piece written for Fox News as "the honor of a lifetime."<ref>{{cite web|author= Lauren Green|url=https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/honor-of-a-lifetime-performing-at-the-vatican-for-pope-benedict-his-brother/ |publisher=Fox News| date=2014-01-17|access-date=2014-01-19|title=Honor of a lifetime -- performing at the Vatican for Pope Benedict, his brother}}</ref>
==COVID-19 pandemic== Throughout the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], Green advocated for churches who defied court orders to stop large gatherings.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/lauren-green-coronavirus-crisis-why-some-churches-are-defying-bans-on-gathering|title=Why Some Churches Are Defying Bans on Gatherings|website=[[Fox News]]|date=27 March 2020}}</ref> An editorial written by her, and published by [[Fox News]] on March 15 featured a stock photo of people holding hands when CDC guidelines at the time advised against it. The article called washing hands, sanitizing homes, and practicing social distancing a "temporary or flimsy barrier to a raging tsunami" and said "To close the churches where people go for comfort and spiritual strength – as an act of fighting against this biological scourge – seems like a surrender to Satan."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/lauren-green-the-power-of-a-national-day-of-prayer|title=This is the power of a National Day of Prayer|website=[[Fox News]]|date=15 March 2020}}</ref>
Green interviewed Louisiana pastor Tony Spell for a [[Fox News]] piece in which she argued that "The fundamental right to freedom of religion in the United States is [[Sacrosanctity|sacrosanct]]." In Green's piece Spell claimed the church closings were politically motivated, and that through faith his church members had been "healed of HIV and cancer -- diseases [that are] bigger than COVID-19."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/lauren-green-coronavirus-crisis-why-some-churches-are-defying-bans-on-gathering|title=Lauren Green: Coronavirus crisis -- Why some churches are defying bans on gathering|website=[[Fox News]]|date=27 March 2020}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist|2}}
== External links == * [https://web.facebook.com/LaurenGreenFox/ Lauren Green at Facebook] {{Minnesota Pageant Winners}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Lauren}} [[Category:1958 births]] [[Category:African-American beauty pageant winners]] [[Category:African-American classical pianists]] [[Category:African-American television personalities]] [[Category:American women classical pianists]] [[Category:American television reporters and correspondents]] [[Category:Fox News people]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Medill School of Journalism alumni]] [[Category:Miss America 1980s delegates]] [[Category:Miss America Preliminary Talent winners]] [[Category:People from Minneapolis]] [[Category:University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni]] [[Category:African-American Christians]] [[Category:People of the African Methodist Episcopal church]] [[Category:20th-century American pianists]] [[Category:20th-century American women pianists]] [[Category:21st-century American classical pianists]] [[Category:American women television journalists]] [[Category:21st-century American women pianists]] [[Category:African-American women musicians]] [[Category:African-American women pianists]]